The Enlightened Princess
by TorketteMonkette
Summary: AU. Back "home" at the palace, Theron gets a visit from her younger twin sister and her son that was named after her. The adventuring princess explores her relationships with her family and friends (and a few old acquaintances). Later she becomes aware of the feelings that someone has for her, but will she return them? Relationship centered, bit of adventure - T just in case.


**Disclaimer: **I quite obviously do not own anything that has to do with The Monkees. I did change up their personalities a little (just Peter, actually) but that doesn't mean that I own them. Anyone can do that, as long as it makes sense.

**Claimer: **I do own all other characters, though. Yay.

_**A/N):**_Welcome back, guys. Here we are, right back in the _Rebel Princess _universe.  
Here I focus more on the relationships of the characters and, I must warn you, it's going to take me a while to write chapters. But, I was informed that people actually were looking forward to this series and I decided to work on it.  
I'm still planning it out some (the relationship building and all the reasons behind all that) so don't expect updates right after the other. Maybe I'll get into a nice writing swing and finish this up. Who knows?

I'm going to apologize ahead of time if you come across typos or a sea of text. Unfortunately, this site doesn't do the paragraph breaks very well.  
Go on... read it! :D

* * *

This was the second time I was in a dress since the day I ran away. It was a red dress that Mom insisted that I wear – I could only comply. My sister _was _coming after all, but I don't imagine she would find it strange for me to be wearing men's clothing – she'd seen me in them before.  
The only thing that I couldn't get off my mind while I getting dressed was that she named her kid after me – _me _of all people. I knew that I'd have to talk to her about that.

While we were waiting around in the sitting room I was so deep in thought that I didn't pay any mind to Micky when his face turned red when he came in. Now, you might be wondering how I know that if I wasn't paying attention, but I did see it happen. I just shrugged it off, thinking he had a hard time with the servants or something.  
"Hard time" meaning the poor girls wouldn't stop giggling over him or staring at him. Peter seemed a tad annoyed, too – probably for the same reasons.  
I ran my hands over the dress to brush off some lint and looked up at the door as it opened. Helena stepped in and ran over to me as quickly as her feet could carry her. Her smile brightened up her whole face and she looked better than ever.  
"Theron!" she exclaimed, squeezing me in a tight hug. I hugged her back, of course, happy to see her as well. "It's so great to finally see you again! Hearing that you ran away from Mom and Dad scared me half to death!"  
"You know I didn't want to get married to some snobbish prince from a land I've never heard of!" I told her. She shrugged, "I didn't either, but a few days after we got married I fell in love with him and we had our son!"  
"That doesn't mean that would happen with me too." I told her, rolling my eyes a little. Helena rolled her eyes as well.  
"I didn't say _that._"  
"Helena... I didn't know you cared so much." I smirked, "And why did you-"  
"Shh." she put her pointer finger over my lips to shush me. "We'll have to talk about that later."  
I smiled slightly and introduced her to Jen the guys. They each politely bowed to her and complimented her in some way and afterwards we were whisked away to the dining room to have lunch with Helena and the rest of my family.

After lunch – where everyone practically threw thousands of questions at each other – Helena and I went out to one of the gardens to talk.  
"So, Theron, how have you been?" she asked. I smiled.  
"Find. Except this dress is a little itchy..." I grumbled, scratching the back of my neck. Helena laughed softly.  
"Oh, quit your complaining. I bet after I leave you'll burn that thing."  
I snickered, "More than likely."  
"What have you done on your adventures?" she inquired, changing the subject. I remembered a lot of the things I did and took a deep breath before telling.  
"Well, I met those four men you saw in there – Peter, Micky, Mike and David – then Phillip dragged us back here. I wrote a letter explaining why I left but Cassia wrote her own version of it." I scowled at the thought of that woman but quickly wiped it off my face, wondering if my sister had noticed. "Then after I gave them the _real_ letter I left again – with the guys, of course."  
"Whoa..." Helena stared at me as I spoke, seeming to be interested. We rounded the corner and walked by several rose bushes; I continued.  
"That's only the beginning – then we got kidnapped by a dragon-"  
She gasped, "A dragon?!"  
I laughed, "Yeah, but they needed our help. The nephew of the king was going to kill the heir after the king died. We got it all sorted, though."  
"Is this true?" she asked, her eyebrow raised at me with skepticism. I nodded, "Yes, honest. Then, after we had the dragon thing straightened out, we came back here for a visit... then Mom said you were coming... with Theron."  
Helena smiled, "You'll have to tell me the whole dragon story one day."  
"Damon knows the _whole_ thing." I said. "Ask him."  
"Damon was there?!" she gasped out with shock.  
"For the last bit, don't worry." I patted her shoulder lightly. "He followed David and I – the shorter one, you know – while we were coming back from negotiating with Dad – Damon should explain that part – but we told him the entire story a few times."  
"Ah..." she breathed in relief.

We were silent for a while. The only sound was our footsteps on the stone pathway and birds chirping under the sunlight.  
"Why did you, uh, name him Theron?" I asked quietly, not bothering to look over at her. She sighed and stopped walking – I stopped as well so I wouldn't leave her behind me.  
"I-I thought if you died or got kidnapped or – if I lost you I would still have a Theron."  
I stared at her, "I thought you hated me."  
Helena shook her head firmly. "I thought I did too... but after I got sent away I realized how much you meant to me. I finally figured that I only picked on you and all because I wanted your attention and I wanted you to stay with me." I thought for a second and nodded, realizing that, deep down inside, I had felt the same. "Yeah... me too."  
There was another silence as we continued down the pathway until I asked, "What about you – what have you been up to?"  
"Not much after what I've already told you. Just princess-y things here and there, plus taking care of the baby." she replied with a shrug. I nodded in response.  
"Are you getting married anytime soon?" she suddenly blurted. I stopped in my tracks at stared at her with wide eyes. Helena stopped too when she realized that I had and looked back at me. "What's wrong?" she asked.  
"Y-you just asked me... if I was getting married!" I began to laugh, "Why in the _world_ would you think that?!"  
"O-one of those men kept looking at you li-" she stammered but I cut her off and still laughed, "Seriously? Which one?"  
"The one that looks a little like Gregory..." she trailed off. I rolled my eyes, calming down from my laughing fit.  
"_Micky?_ He looks at _all_ women that way – he's just a dog."  
"No, no, no, Theron. Not like that at all!"  
"He zones out sometimes when he's thinking."  
Helena shook her head, simply saying, "No, Theron."  
I shrugged it off. No man could possibly _ever_like me in such a way. I just wasn't that likeable and I'd already come to accept that.

It was dinner time and we were all sitting around the dining table. Everyone was sitting in their respectable places and Damon was conveniently seated right next to Helena. I could barely hear him ramble on to her and Mom about the dragons while they smiled with interest.  
Dad sat at the head of the table with Mom, who held baby Theron, Helena and Damon on his right and the guys on his left. I was on Dad's right side as well, beside Damon, with Gregory and Phillip.  
I could see Phillip leaning in closer to us out the corner of my eye. I knew he was trying to listen to Damon's story... I just knew it.

I found myself glancing at Micky a lot and it was beginning to get on my nerves. I tried to get in a conversation with Gregory or help Damon tell the tale but even then I ended up looking over at Micky anyway.  
I looked over at Helena and smiled when she mentioned my name – or maybe she was talking about her son? - and then caught Micky looking at me.I instantly smiled at him and he did the same, trying to act normal, but failed when trying to keep the heat from rising to his cheeks. _'Is Helena right?'_ I thought, smirking at that poor excuse for a thief.  
I rolled my eyes at him while shaking my head. He raised an eyebrow and I shrugged, mouthing, "I'll talk to you guys later, okay?"  
He looked at me for a second in confusion and then nodded with a smile after he'd got it. I smiled as well and turned back to my rambling little brother.

I was making my way down the hall to the sitting room when someone bumped into me. "Excuse me, your Highness."  
I took a step back and got a better look at who it was. He was dressed in chain-mail armor with a sword on his side. The red cloth cape on his back had our family crest upon it and obviously that meant that he was one of our guards or something.  
"I am truly sorry." he said with a slight bow. I finally came to recognize him and a smile pulled at the corners of my lips. "It's fine, Matthias."  
"Theron! Long time no see!" he grinned as he figured who I was. "How have you been? I trust you've been well and haven't had trouble with those bandits."  
"They're not bandits and, yes, I've been doing pretty good."  
"Good." he smiled fondly down at me but reluctantly told me that he had to go tend to some business or other. I just as unwillingly let him go with a quiet "bye".  
"Maybe we could talk sometime again, yes? Catch up and whatnot?"  
I nodded with an eager smile and he left. Suddenly Gregory popped around the corner grinning madly.  
"What's your problem?"  
"Aw, nothing... just happy that my baby sister found her guard charming again!"  
I scoffed defensively, "I don't like him like that anymore!"  
"That grin on your face tells otherwise." Gregory began to snicker and he wrapped an arm around my shoulders. "It's okay, though... I think it's cute."  
I pushed him off and started for the sitting room again – the guys were most likely waiting on me.  
"Where are you going?"  
"To see the others, that's where." I replied plainly but stopped and turned around. "You coming?"  
"Nah, Dad wants me for something and I _had _to stop to see how far you two sweethearts got." he smirked with a wink. I huffed and started away again, "Shut up, Gregory."

We were finally all together in the sitting room while Helena and Mom caught up in privacy. I sat next to Peter and smiled at him.  
"Nice dress." he said with an amused smirk. I grunted in response as I scratched the back of my neck, "You better be glad you don't have to wear one."  
He chuckled quietly, shaking his head in amusement. I sighed and shot a smirk and "same for you" look in Micky's direction before looking over at Mike and Jen. They were seated quite closely to each other and I'd noticed them growing closer in the days since they met. I was actually quite happy for them with where ever that was going.  
"Have you seen the gardens, Jen?" I asked her and she smiled with a nod. "Yes, they're quite lovely."  
I smiled in return, agreeing, and scratched the back of my neck again, grumbling in discomfort.

Curled up under the blankets in my bed, I stared at the door across the room. I felt a small smile on my face as I thought about talking to Matthias again.  
_'It's neat to see him again... I actually nearly forgot that he was still a guard around here. It'd be nice to catch up a bit – I'm sure he'll like all the things I've done.'_ I sighed as I thought. _'But Greg... he's such a dim-wit sometimes. He doesn't understand.'_  
I heard baby Theron crying own the hall and I tried to exhale all the things that Gregory said out of my thoughts.  
I knew that I did, in fact, have a silly little crush on him when I was younger – he was actually about five or six years older than me. If memory serves me correctly, I was about fifteen when I developed the crush and he was about the minimum guard age, which was twenty – eighteen in special cases.  
I sighed again and rolled over onto my other side before eventually falling asleep, thoughts of what I might tell Matthias when we got the time to talk.


End file.
